Colin170CR

How much extra ummph do you get & have you had a chance to test it yet?

It doesn't matter how much wheel protection is provided by the width of the tyre my wife still managed to curb the alloys in her Karoq & my Superb. She made a right mess of my front near side. I'm now looking at getting all of them them powder coated black to match the paintwork. Her Karoq front near side 19" Crater alloy is also a mess & now needs refurbishing. I'll say no more or I could get a visit from the female spacial awareness police👮‍♀️

My 2016 280 remembers its DCC setting & is set to Sport mode for most of the time. However, like you the Auto start start can be very annoying & when I remember I kill it every time I get in the car. There is a memory module kit on Ali Express for this but so far I have resisted. I believe a few members on here (Bap33 being one) have fitted one of these kits, albeit with a few issues if memory serves. I don't do many annual miles now so I'm OK with the lower mpg of my 280 which is well worth it for the extra grin factor 😁. I'm going to get my wheels refurbed & powder coated Gloss Black soon to match the colour of the car.

Check the tyre wear on the inside of the rears for any evidence of rear tracking / camber out of whack. When I bought mine at 25k miles the inside of the rear tyres were down to the canvas while the outside were showing loads of tread left. It's not easy to see the inside of the rear tyres so worth a look. I had to get the rear camber / tracking done on a 4 wheel alignment rig to correct the problem.

You will miss the power, performance & boot space of the 280. Compared to my 280 I find my wife's 1.5 DSG Karoq quite sluggish (not surprising really) & the fuel consumption isn't that much better. We both do low local mileages these days so neither car gets great mpg which is why we are considering whether we need both cars now. The Karoq will get a long run over to France later in the year so I expect it's mpg to improve from 30-32 to near 40mpg. The best I've ever got out of the 280 was 35mpg on a long run, normally it's around 23-26mpg. Unless you're doing higher mileage I'd stick with the 280.

I guess for that sort of cost it is probably worth adding for the additional comfort & as a resale feature when the time comes. I'd like to see see the install photos / story as it's something I might consider adding to our Karoq. The Karoq seats slid, tumble & can be removed so different to the Superb set up. Nonetheless the rear control panel & wiring might be similar so that would worth a look when you get around to it.

What's the cost for all this rear seat passenger hemoroide inducing comfort? I've got heated seats all round in my L&K & they hardly get used. Only SWIMBO uses the front passenger one in the winter when the leather is a bit frosty. Don't think the rears have ever been used in 4 years.

I understand your concern. I do have side curtain airbags which are located near the top of the B pillars. The rear dash cam cable crosses the top of the B pillar but is only just tucked in between the top of the seat belt trim & the roof lining. I do not feel it compromises the side curtain airbag which is located below the position of the cable cable. I've seen a few rear camera installation videos which have taken routes near A & B pillar airbags & in all cases the pro installers reckon if the bag was to deploy it would push any nearby cable out of the way. Skoda Superb airbag videos The side airbags fire in a downward direction & away from where the cable is located near the top of the roof lining. That said if the cable were to be located directly over the top of a side airbag unit then I believe there would be an issue but that is not the case here. If I had a bit more length on the cable I would have gone down, across & back up the B pillar seat belt trim to the rear door or, down to the floor & then to the rear, but unfortunately these options were not possible for me. I'm happy with the location of the cable as it is.

Well as expected that was a bit of a pain. I re-routed the rear cam cable at high level down the driver side of the car tucking it in all the way to the ceiling trim until the C pillar where I had to remove the trim to fish the cable through to the tailgate flexy rubber. Pics below show where the DAB aerial connects to the rear glass & the camera cable routed behind it. Ferrite core suppressor snapped onto the cable right next to the camera which is hanging at this point. Getting the rear tailgate trim off proved as difficult as I thought it would be. The lower tailgate panel has to come off first after removing the tailgate light fittings & the tailgate close button. All on spring clips - no screw. The upper part of the tailgate trim has two T25 screws & the rest are spring clips. It was much cooler today so I had to tread carefully in case I damaged any of the clips or their retaining sliders. All went well & they all survived. Bit of a mess in the boot while all this was going on. WD40 used to get the flexy rubbers off a bit easier & to grease the inside of the flexy rubber for the new camera cable to slide through into the top of the tailgate. Not sure if I could have removed the rear trim without the use of the vehicle trim tool kit I got on Amazon a while ago. £20 well spent which has come in handy for a few jobs around the car & the house since then. Putting the tailgate trim back on was reasonably straightforward & the reverse of the removal. Everything snapped back into place with a bit of a thump & no rattles. I used 3M double sided tape to stick the camera high up on the rear screen. The only snag is that currently the camera is positioned outside the sweep of the rear wiper. Hopefully this won't impede the view too much when the rear screen gets it gets dirty - as it is now. If it does impede the view / picture quality then I may have to reposition the camera a bit lower on the screen - think I'm gonna have to do that anyway just to make sure. There was only just enough cable to run all the way to the back of the rear screen on the Superb estate & there was a push fit cable joint behind the DAB aerial panel which I wrapped in tape to make sure it cannot come apart 🤞 & there does not seem to be any DAB interference now from the camera. The smoked rear glass means the camera is well camouflaged. As such it won't act as a visual deterrent which is a bit of a shame. I wonder if I should put a "smile you are camera" sticker on the rear glass? 😏. Probably not. The Cobra dash cam screen up front now is spit & shows front & rear cameras. I suspect the overall picture quality might now be a bit lower with the added rear view camera but that's ok. Well that's just about enough car tinkering for this weeked. Overnight we seem to have got another bunch of Sahara sand dumped on the cars so I guess I'll have to give them a wash tomorrow. to save money I have decided to stop using the local hand wash car cleaning drive through service as they were getting a bit expensive (inside & out £18 for the Superb & £22 for the Karoq). Instead I have invested in some extra kit to wash the cars properly myself. Time to try out my new swivel short trigger pressure washer gun, foam lance & Bilt Hamber Touch-Less pre wash snow foam. Got some acid free BH wheel cleaner as well which by all accounts is the best of the bunch & won't rot your wheel caps like the hand wash drive through stuff does. I reckon it will take about 4 washes to re-coupe the investment in all the extra gear I bought but after that it will be savings all the way.

Fitted the ferrite core suppressors which did help however, I have noticed that the nearside tailgate flexy rubber tubing is already full of cables, wires & probably a rear wash water hose to the point where there's not much if any room for an additional thickish cam cable. The drivers side tailgate flexy rubber is a tad smaller but feels like it has way more space available inside it. So, I now plan to rip out the rear cam cable from the nearside & re-route it down the drivers side. This will also mean avoiding the DAB aerial cable which I think runs down the nearside C pillar. The hardest part will be getting the rear tailgate trim off. I've seen a few video's of hatchback tailgate trim removals but no estate models which I assume will be similar & very stiff to prize off.

We bought a used 19 plate Edition 1.5 4 x 4 last November. No sunroof issues yet but then again it's only done 12k miles in total since new. I can't say if it's noisier than a tin roof or not because the radio is normally on loud enough to drown out any background noise. However, it definitely feels brighter & roomier inside (even with the shade drawn) than my larger Superb estate which has a tin roof. We tend not to have the sunroof open when driving because it is quite noisy then & drowns out the tunes. It's the first car I've had with a sunroof since a MK1 Cavalier many years ago so it's a bit of a novelty for us. That said I don't think I would have paid for a sunroof as an option but as stated above Edition models got the sunroof as standard. TBH I would have preferred a heated front windscreen or DCC in place of the sunroof but when your buying 2nd hand you don't get to choose the spec.

I agree however, the rear camera cable is just not long enough for that route. Even if it was long enough the cable would still have to come up the C pillar & route through the tailgate flexy tubing to a position on the tailgate glass. And the C pillar appears to be where the interference problem is (passenger side). I could try running the cable down the drivers side instead but I'm not sure if the cable is long enough for that route either. The ferrite core suppressors arrive tomorrow & if they don't fix the problem then I'll probably bin the idea.

For me there are no real downsides to the Revo remap. The fuel consumption, which was not great to start with, has remained the same. Circa 25-28mpg around town & up to 36-38mpg or more on a run (I use Tesco Momentum 99 octane which is needed to get the best out of this engine). Luckily I don't do high mileages anymore so a lowish mpg is not an issue for me & was a contributing factor for me switching from a diesel to a petrol car. I'm also considering a Revo DSG remap as well but I'm not sure if this is really needed. Apart from the slight hesitation when moving off in D mode (which can be solved by selecting Sport mode to reduce the lag), the OEM DSG config is OK'sh for me. That said anything can be improved but not having sampled a remapped DSG I can't make a comparison or decide if that investment is worth doing. As for the engine remap well that's a different story. The extra 80bhp & 100+nm of torque make a substantial difference. The extra torque in D mode makes for quick progress without the DSG having to hang onto each gear. In Sport mode it's the reverse & borders on brutally savage acceleration as it revs up to just beyond the red line in the lower gears. That said it is huge fun when you want to make quick progress or overtake slower moving traffic. When needed I flick it into Sport mode for quick response to get onto onto roundabouts & when joining motorways etc & then put back into D mode for normal use. I hardly ever feel the need to use the paddles except for manual downshifts when approaching traffic lights or roundabouts to make use of the engine braking effect. The Revo Stg 1 remap more than enough for what I need without having to resort to any more expensive mods. My insurance company (LV) were OK with the power upgrade as well. Maybe not if I was younger! Since it's my car (which I will be keeping for quite a while) & not a lease car, I prefered the Revo remap over a tuning box. Other remap firms / suppliers are out there but I think Revo is one of the best around for VAG cars. I'm now waiting for Revo to come out with a stage 1 remap for the 1.5Tsi in our Karoq 4 x 4 DSG which is a bit lethargic by comparison. Even in sport mode it's not easy to get the Karoq off the line very quickly due to the anti stall software it now has to cure the kangarooing problems they had with the earlier models. That said the Karoq is my wife's car & she's not interested in more power. Any mods to the Karoq would be for my benefit when I drive it, which might more often because to save costs we are considering dropping down to one car between the two of us. The problem is whilst my wife can drive my Superb she prefers the Karoq. So the question is can I live without the power & practicality of the Superb estate? I think I'll wait a bit longer before I make that decision🤔

Rear dash cam DAB interference. I fitted & hard wired a Cobra front dash cam (Costco special buy) quite a while ago & it's been fine. The Cobra came with a rear camera as well which up until now I had not installed. So today I have been "playing" with the cabling for the rear cam on my Superb Estate. Mindful of the reports of DAB radio interference from rear cameras I did not want to start ripping off trim unnecessarily so I loosely ran the cable from the front cam cable splitter to the rear C pillar tucking it in loosely where I could while listening to the radio. Sure enough when I got to tucking the cable in & behing the rear passenger side C pillar trim the radio stopped & the signal dropped out. The DAB aerial cable must be in this area. I will try adding some ferrite core suppressors to the cam cable at both ends to see if that solves the problem. If not then the rear camera project will have to get shelved as the cable is not long enough to take a different route - if that is even an option. Has anyone else had rear cam interference issues & did you manage to solve them?

Karoq Bonnet gas struts fitted today but a bit of a PITA to do. Problems with my AliExpress gas strut kit. Black Bonnet extension brackets were a bit scruffy. Sharp edges & scuffed finish. I filed down the edges & gave them a lick of satin black spray paint to smarten them up. The extension bracket in my kit was beefed up compared to others I've seen - which was good. However, the two 90 deg bends that strengthen the bracket are too close to re-use the white OEM bonnet bracket nut - bad. I had to use the smaller nut that came in the kit & use the white OEM nut to attach the top gas strut connector. See the pics below. When fitted there was a small gap between the underside of the black bonnet extension bracket & the underside of the bonnet which meant the whole thing flexed a bit when the bonnet was lifted up / down. My solution was to adapt / cut up a 3mm blue shim from my bag of carpenter's shims. The shim is just visible in the pics below. I had some 9mm black shims which would have looked better but they were too thick. Only one of the struts is gas assisted which through me a bit when I tested the first one I fitted & it didn't lift the bonnet. Only when the second strut was fitted did it work. All in all it works OK but it's not the best engineered bit of kit I've ever seen. I guess for £18.55 incl tax & shipping you get what you pay for. Strangely this item is no longer available on AliExpress. Hummmmmm? Still, the bonnet is much easier to lift now & something I think the Edition model should have had as standard. LED reversing light bulbs are next which should arrive tomorrow. Gone with some more expensive ones from Amazon Prime (£11.59 for two ain't too bad) because I don't want to wait 4+ weeks for cheaper ones on Ali Express.

Ain't that the truth😖 I need to wash our as well. Also need to get one crater wheel on the Karoq refurbished after the wife curbed it. It now matches the F/N/S alloy on my Superb after she curbed that as well the other week!! What is with females & their lack of spatial awareness? Not saying us guys are perfect but every car my wife has had with alloys she has managed to curb wheels on all of them with within 1 month of owning 😒. Rant over. I now need to find a video on how to fit some gas struts to the Karoq bonnet since no instructions came with the ones I got from AliExpress.

DCC is worth considering if you like soft / hard suspension depending on the road surface, your driving style or who is in the car. My wife's Karoq Edition 1.5 DSG 4 x 4 does not have DCC but, my Superb L&K does so I do miss DCC when I drive the Karoq. That said my wife is not bothered about DCC, paddle gear shifters, DSG sport mode, cruise control or half of the other stuff fitted to the Edition model. But she does like the ambient lighting & changes it daily!! 🤔 I also miss the heated front windscreen (in winter) on the Karoq which is fitted on my Superb. We bought our Karoq used so we didn't get a choice of options but for what my wife needs it's absolutely fine. However, those nice to have options will push up the price very quickly.

Well that didn't go too well. It seems that none of these bulbs fit the Karoq Edition model which seems to have part LED lights already. The OEM glove box light is the only one that looks a bit yellow but the bulb supplied in this kit is not compatible with the OEM fitting which has two prongs from a PCB light. Also, being an Edition with a glass roof it does not have a rear centre Dome light. Instead it has two rear side roof lights both of which have an LED imbedded in a PCB. So, all in all a bit of a waste time & money. I guess I should have investigated more before buying. I might be able to use some of these bulbs on my Superb so it may not be a total loss.

I run my DCC in Sport mode as a default setting & change to Normal occasionally when I have some passengers who may prefer a softer ride. Just have to remember not to hit the speed bumps too fast in Sport mode though as you can literally come off the seat if you are not careful. I have never used the comfort setting as it feels way too soft for me.

I checked the coolant level today 3 weeks after the warning light originally came on & I topped it up. The level looks OK & there are no visible signs of any leaks from on top or underneath. So on that basis I guess some more observation is required over the coming weeks before I need to take any action.

Yep. That's my plan for now at least. I plan to have a look today.

Thanks for all the comments & apologies' for the delayed response - I forgot to do the follow topic button doh!! Ouch! Sounds like an expensive fix. I'll keep an eye on it & in the meantime I'll get a quote from a couple of local VAG independents. Bang goes my first ever state pension payment ☹️

When I was looking for a 2nd hand petrol Superb estate in 2018 to replace my old Mk2 Superb 170TDi Elegance I wanted a Sportline. However, I also wanted the 280 engine, 4 x 4, leather, heated front windscreen, DCC, heated seats etc. This pretty much ruled out the Sportline. 280's in any guise were as rare as hens teeth at the time I was looking but I eventually found a 2.5 year old 2016 66 plate L&K 280 estate in Black metallic with 22k on the clock. It had no rear camera or sunroof but apart from that it had everything else I could want plus a few things I didn't need - park assist (never used) & lane assist (turned off the day I got it). It was a quick car as stock but I added a Revo stage 1 remap (360BHP) & now my "under the radar dad's" car now has a real turn of speed when needed. A hugely practical & capable car which I will probably keep for a while yet. And, according to Autotrader used car prices, I reckon I could now get very close to what I paid for it back in May 2018!! Amazing.. So am I glad I went for an L&K over a Sportline? Oh yes.

1, & 3 arrived & fitted - pics & write up elsewhere in this thread. Interior LED bulb kit arrived today but not yet fitted. Handy that they have labeled each set of bulbs. I'm still waiting for the gas strut kit for the bonnet.

My rear wheel arch fenders arrived & have been fitted. Before fitting them I hosed down the inside of the wheel arch to remove as much crud as possible - not enough as it turned out. NOTE - there are 3 (not 2) existing wheel arch liner screws with T20 heads which can be re-used for fitting the liners. Despite spending time feeling around blind I nearly missed one screw at the 11 O'clock position - top hole. It was hiding in a different position / angle to the other 2 screws & covered in crud. More washing required to expose it & get the T20 bit into the head of the screw. Forget about using the crosshead screws & angled screwdriver thingy supplied with the arch fenders - useless. You need a T20 bit to get the OEM screws out so just re-use them. Getting the existing screws out & back in without taking the wheel off will require the use of an right angle adaptor or flexy drive for a hand held driver. Even then it was still a bit of a faff accompanied by lots of swearing & skinned knuckles. Getting the screws back in while holding the liner in position while feeling for the screw holes in a tight space was not easy. In hindsight it would have been much easier to take the rear wheels off but I just couldn't be bothered to break out the jack & impact wrench et all. Any ho, all fitted now & these liners should help to keep crud building up on the inside rim of the rear doors which apparently seems to be a bit of a Karoq problem. My Karoq doesn't have wheel arch cladding so I was a bit worried what these new fenders would look like. As it turns out they look fine, to my eyes at least. For £17.83 incl delivery & Vat they are a good buy & something that is functional rather than just aesthetic. A recommended upgrade for all Karoq owners I think. I was feeling quite chuffed until the wife announced that she had just curbed the front alloy!!!!! That's going to be a £80 bill for a refurb. Hey ho.